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Is Nigel Farage “snarling” or “aggressive”? I don’t know, because I’ve not met him.
Do I care if he is? No. Why? Because he’s a terrific UKIP leader.

I would be worried were he an expenses cheat, or suspected pervert, or had some kind of terrible past, because that would make him blackmailable and therefore politically maleable. But unlike a large number of other politicians, he is none of those things.

In any case, even if he is “snarling” or “aggressive”, is that such a bad thing in a leader, or even a Prime Minister? I think not. One only has to recall the “nice man”, John Major, to see what damage a wet blanket can do to the country.

So I say to all Farage’s detractors, wind your necks in. If you want power, try gaining it the hard way, as Nigel has, instead of trying to stab him in the back. Your power-grubbing and whinging says more about your lack of character than it says about Nigel Farage.

Carswell refers to the Tory party as “a party that talks Eurosceptic at general elections but ends up agreeing with Michael Heseltine about further integration – the authentic voice of the Conservative Party establishment” and then …

Heseltine:

“The Tory Party is an immensely sophisticated political force. It is the most successful democratic organisation in human history …”

I’ve changed the formatting a bit because WordPress made a mess of it. There’s a lot to pore into, which I hope to do in the coming days, ailments permitting!

Protecting jobs and increasing prosperity

We would review all legislation and regulations from the EU (3,600 new laws since 2010) and remove those which hamper British prosperity and competitiveness.

We would negotiate a bespoke trade agreement with the EU to enable our businesses to continue trading to mutual advantage.

UKIP would not seek to remain in the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) or European Economic Area (EEA) while those treaties maintain a principle of free movement of labour, which prevents the UK managing its own borders.

We would reoccupy the UK’s vacant seat at the World Trade Organisation, ensuring that we continue to enjoy ‘most favoured nation’ status in trade with the EU, as is required under WTO rules.

Repairing the UK Economy

UKIP will increase personal allowance to the level of full-time minimum wage earnings (approx £13,500 by next election).

Inheritance tax will be abolished.

We will introduce a 35p income tax rate between £42,285 and £55,000, whereupon the 40p rate becomes payable.

UKIP will set up a Treasury Commission to design a turnover tax to ensure big businesses pay a minimum floor rate of tax as a proportion of their UK turnover.

Reducing debts we leave to our grandchildren

UKIP will leave the EU and save at least £8bn pa in net contributions.

UKIP will cut the foreign aid budget by £9bn pa, prioritising disaster relief and schemes which provide water and inoculation against preventable diseases.

UKIP will scrap the HS2 project which is uneconomical and unjustified.

UKIP will abolish the Department of Energy and Climate Change and scrap green subsidies.

UKIP will introduce an option for students to take an Apprenticeship Qualification instead of four non-core GCSEs which can be continued at A-Level. Students can take up apprenticeships in jobs with certified professionals qualified to grade the progress of the student.

Subject to academic performance UKIP will remove tuition fees for students taking approved degrees in science, medicine, technology, engineering, maths on the condition that they live, work and pay tax in the UK for five years after the completion of their degrees.

UKIP will scrap the target of 50% of school leavers going to university.

Students from the EU will pay the same student fee rates as International students.

UKIP supports the principle of Free Schools that are open to the whole community and uphold British values.

Existing schools will be allowed to apply to become grammar schools and select according to ability and aptitude. Selection ages will be flexible and determined by the school in consultation with the local authority.

Schools will be investigated by OFSTED on the presentation of a petition to the Department for Education signed by 25% of parents or governors.

Honouring the Military Covenant

We will resource fully our military assets and personnel.

UKIP will guarantee those who have served in the Armed Forces for a minimum of 12 years a job in the police force, prison service or border force

UKIP will change the points system for social housing to give priority to ex-service men and women and those returning from active service.

A Veterans Department will bring together all veterans services to ensure servicemen and women get the after-service care they deserve.

Veterans are to receive a Veterans’ Service Card to ensure they are fast tracked for mental health care and services, if needed.

All entitlements will be extended to servicemen recruited from overseas.

UKIP supports a National Service Medal for all those who have served in the armed forces.

The National Health Service

UKIP will ensure the NHS is free at the point of delivery and time of need for all UK residents.

We will stop further use of PFI in the NHS and encourage local authorities to buy out their PFI contracts early where this is affordable.

We will ensure that GPs’ surgeries are open at least one evening per week, where there is demand for it.

UKIP opposes plans to charge patients for visiting their GP.

We will ensure that visitors to the UK, and migrants until they have paid NI for five years, have NHS-approved private health insurance as a condition of entry to the UK, saving the NHS £2bn pa. UKIP will commit to spending £200m of the £2bn saving to end hospital car parking charges in England.

We will replace Monitor and the Care Quality Commission with elected county health boards to be more responsive scrutineers of local health services. These will be able to inspect health services and take evidence from whistle-blowers.

UKIP opposes the sale of NHS data to third parties.

We will ensure foreign health service professionals coming to work in the NHS are properly qualified and can speak English to a standard acceptable to the profession.

UKIP will amend working time rules to give trainee doctors, surgeons and medics the proper environment to train and practise.

There will be a duty on all health service staff to report low standards of care.

Controlling and managing our borders

UKIP recognises the benefits of limited, controlled immigration.

UKIP will leave the EU, and take back control of our borders. Work permits will be permitted to fill skills gaps in the UK jobs market.

We will extend to EU citizens the existing points-based system for time-limited work permits. Those coming to work in the UK must have a job to go to, must speak English, must have accommodation agreed prior to their arrival, and must have NHS-approved health insurance.

Migrants will only be eligible for benefits (in work or out of work) when they have been paying tax and NI for five years and will only be eligible for permanent residence after ten years.

UKIP will reinstate the primary purpose rule for bringing foreign spouses and children to the UK.

UKIP will not offer an amnesty for illegal immigrants or those gaining British passports through fraud.

UKIP will return to the principles of the UN Convention of Refugees which serves to protect the most vulnerable.

Foreign Aid

UKIP will target foreign aid at healthcare initiatives, inoculations against preventable diseases and clean water programmes with a much-reduced aid budget administered by the Foreign Office.

British organisations will be offered the contracts to deliver the remaining aid following removal of the EU Procurement Directive.

Energy

UKIP will repeal the Climate Change Act 2008 which costs the economy £18bn a year.

We will scrap the Large Combustion Plant Directive and encourage the re-development of British power stations, as well as industrial units providing on-site power generation.

UKIP supports the development of shale gas with proper safeguards for the local environment. Community Improvement Levy money from the development of shale gas fields will be earmarked for lower council taxes or community projects within the local authority being developed.

There will be no new subsidies for wind farms and solar arrays.

UKIP will abolish green taxes and charges in order to reduce fuel bills.

Agriculture and Fishing

By leaving the EU, the UK will leave the Common Agricultural Policy. Outside the EU UKIP will institute a British Single Farm Payment for farms.

UKIP will let the British parliament vote on GM foods.

UKIP will leave the Common Fisheries Policy and reinstate British territorial waters.

Foreign trawlers would have to apply for and purchase fishing permits to fish British waters when fish stocks have returned to sustainable levels.

Food must be labelled to include the country of origin, method of production, method of slaughter, hormones and any genetic additives.

UKIP will abolish the export of live animals for slaughter

Welfare and Childcare

UKIP opposes the bedroom tax because it operates unfairly, penalising those who are unable to find alternative accommodation and taking insufficient account of the needs of families and the disabled.

Child benefit is only to be paid to children permanently resident in the UK and future child benefit to be limited to the first two children only.

UKIP will ensure there is an initial presumption of 50/50 shared parenting in child custody matters and grandparents will be given visitation rights.

UKIP supports a simplified, streamlined welfare system and a benefit cap.

Transport

We will scrap HS2.

UKIP opposes tolls on public roads and will let existing contracts for running toll roads expire.

UKIP will maintain pensioner bus passes.

UKIP will require foreign vehicles to purchase a Britdisc, before entry to the UK, in order to contribute to the upkeep of UK roads and any lost fuel duty.

UKIP will ensure that speed cameras are used as a deterrent and not as a revenue raiser for local authorities.

Housing and planning

UKIP will protect the Green Belt.

Planning rules in the NPPF will be changed to make it easier to build on brownfield sites instead of greenfield sites. Central government is to list the nationally available brownfield sites for development and issue low-interest bonds to enable decontamination.

Houses on brownfield sites will be exempt from Stamp Duty on first sale and VAT relaxed for redevelopment of brownfield sites.

Planning Permission for large-scale developments can be overturned by a referendum triggered by the signatures of 5% of the District or Borough electors collected within three months.

Democracy and the Constitution

UKIP will overcome the unfairness of MPs from devolved nations voting on English-only issues.

UKIP supports the recall of MPs as was originally promised in the Coalition Agreement, whereby 20% of the electorate in a constituency must sign a recall petition within eight weeks. The approval of MPs will not be required to initiate a recall petition.

UKIP will introduce the Citizens’ Initiative to allow the public to initiate national referendums on issues of major public interest.

Law and Order

UKIP will withdraw from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

UKIP will reverse the government’s opt-in to EU law and justice measures, including the European Arrest Warrant and European Investigation Order. We will replace the EAW with appropriate bi-lateral agreements.

UKIP will not give prisoners the vote.

UKIP believes that full sentences should be served and this should be taken into account when criminals are convicted and sentenced in court. Parole should be available for good behaviour on a case-by-case basis, not systematically.

We will repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a new British Bill of Rights. The interests of law-abiding citizens & victims will always take precedence over those of criminals.

Culture

UKIP recognises and values an overarching, unifying British culture, which is open and inclusive to anyone who wishes to identify with Britain and British values, regardless of their ethnic or religious background.

Official documents will be published in English and, where appropriate Welsh and Scots Gaelic.

UKIP will ensure that the law is rigorously enforced in relation to ‘cultural’ practices which are illegal in Britain, such as forced marriages, FGM and so-called ‘honour killings’

We will review the BBC Licence Fee with a view to its reduction. Prosecution of non-payments of the Licence Fee would be taken out of the criminal sphere and made a civil offence.

UKIP will amend the smoking ban to give pubs and clubs the choice to open smoking rooms properly ventilated and separated from non-smoking areas.

Colliemum thinks that “Cameron and Miliband know that their only chance at governing next year is in a ConLab coalition.”

I agree. I believe LibLabCon are worried about UKIP gaining seats. The Tories, because their backbenchers would only countenance a coalition with UKIP – not the Lib Dems. Since the LibDems are likely to lose most of their seats (or a serious loss in their numbers), they are unlikely to be kingmakers.

So Lab and Con don’t have a potential coalition partner unless they team up with UKIP and teaming up with UKIP means their being unable to ram through EU legislation. That’s why I think Lab and Con are engineering a hung parliament – so that they can go into some kind of formal or informal coalition with each other on EU matters.

We’ve seen this happen on many occasions – the current government has relied upon Labour votes to ram bills through Parliament that the majority of Conservative MPs were very unhappy about.

… when the hall erupted into rapturous applause as they stood and held their smart phones a loft to record the moment. When the cheering abated sufficiently, Reckless continued:

“… and joining UKIP”.

More cheers and another thumping standing ovation. The beauty of Mark Reckless’s defection is the timing and what it says about Farage’s ability to keep a secret. The slot during which Reckless spoke was designated as a half-hour slot for Farage, who had somehow managed to keep this amazing prize a complete and utter secret, right up to the last minute. I wonder which of Cameron and Farage the Queen would be most comfortable with as a keeper of secrets.

Criticism has begun to emerge on the advisability of UKIP’s shift to the “centre ground”. I don’t believe UKIP is shifting to the centre ground, just because it espouses some policies which are not considered to be “conservative”.

Instead of lurching UKIP to the “centre”, I get the impression that Farage is making excellent use of grassroots issues around which policies can be / are crafted. That way, he kills three birds with one stone:

He gives local people a voice;

That voice he gives to local people is heady – as well as being demonstrably and irrefutably democratic,

Whereas UKIP’s votes have been scattered such that there have, in past elections, been insufficient pockets of UKIP supporters in some areas to make a dent, the emergence of grassroots-based policy-making, potentially roots UKIP in every community.

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Quotes

"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, American Statesman and Dipolomat

“There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” -- Ayn Rand

“In a government of laws, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipotent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. If government becomes a lawbreaker it breeds contempt for law: it invites every man to become a law unto himself. It invites anarchy.” -- Justice Louis Brandeis

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague." -- Marcus Tullius Cicero

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion- When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing- when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors- when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice- you may know that your society is doomed. -- Ayn Rand, 1958

"By a continuous process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method, they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some ... The process engages all of the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner that not one man in a million can diagnose." -- John Maynard Keynes, Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920

Politicians are wordsmiths, most deriving from journalism, law and PR. Their craft is words. Those who believe what they say are fools. Judge them by what they do, not by what they say. -- Anon

The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is." -- Winston Churchill

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." -- JFK, John F Kennedy, 35th US President